Holocaust denier Fredrick Toben jailed in Australia

Fredrick Toben, an Australian man who was convicted earlier this year of publishing anti-Semitic material on the internet, has started a three-month jail term after his appeal was quashed.

Toben who is wanted in Germany on charges of denying the Holocaust was found guilty in May of 24 counts of contempt of a 2002 court ruling that barred him from publishing anti-Semitic material on the website of his organisation, the Adelaide Institute.

The material found to be in breach of the order included suggestions that the Holocaust did not happen, that questioned whether there were gas chambers at the Auschwitz death camp, and that challenged the intelligence of Jews who questioned Holocaust deniers' beliefs.

In their verdict, the judges of the Federal Court said the case was not about the Holocaust but about whether Toben had complied with orders of the court.